


What do we do now?

by Iamthebad_wolf



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alien Planet, Angst, Doctor Whump, Exploration, Medical Inaccuracies, Medical Trauma, Miscommunication, Thirteen/yaz if you squint, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 22:11:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16396052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamthebad_wolf/pseuds/Iamthebad_wolf
Summary: Four friends arrive on an alien planet, there to do a bit of harmless exploration. But when the doctor stumbles across a village of people in need of help, she offers her services.However, a little misunderstanding puts team TARDIS all in major danger.Will they escape, and will they all survive?





	1. Chapter 1

“Get inside the TARDIS! Now!”

When someone is usually pretty calm and chill about things yells at you with such a complete urgency and panic in their voice, than you listen to them. You do exactly as they say and you don't even question it. That's why Graham, yaz and Ryan sprint across the dry fields, towards the deep blue box the second the Doctor called out to them. Things are turning nasty, and the Doctor knows that the safest place for all of them is inside her home. So that's where they run. 

Bursting into the control room, the adrenaline filling their systems begins to ease a little, as they hunch over, hands on knees and trying desperately to regain their breath. Graham, as the oldest, is last in. 

“I hate running. Have I ever mentioned that?” he moans, panting hard as he leans against the TARDIS console. 

Yaz rolls her eyes and looks to Ryan, who is shaking his head. “all the time.” Ryan complains

Yaz smiles, laughing gently. The seriousness of the situation wearing off slightly now that they are safe. But there is someone missing. “hang on, where's the Doctor?” 

The two men look up at that. In their frantic haste to get inside the TARDIS, they had forgotten about the one who had told them to get there. She isn't anywhere in the TARDIS, and the others don't like that. “Where is she?” 

The TARDIS makes a strange noise, almost that of startled panic, and everyone turns to look at the door as it bursts open, and a blonde woman bursts in. She slams the door shut behind her and rushes to the control panel, flicking levers and pulling switches, desperate to get away. She says nothing, barely even acknowledging her worried companions. 

“Doctor,” yaz starts. “are you okay?” 

Indeed, the time lord's face is pale, hair all disheveled, and her coat has a big rip in it, although it looks to yaz like the Doctor is trying to angle the tear away from her companions. The Doctor is also quiet. She is never quiet. She is the most hyperactive puppy like person the trio have ever met, and if she is quiet.. something had to have gone more wrong than they realised. 

The Doctor's breathing isn't slowing. “I need to get us away from here.” She mumbles 

Graham is frowning now. “Doc, you sure you're okay? You really don't look it, you know.”

The Doctor just shakes her head, hair getting in her eyes. “We need to get away from here.”

“Doctor,” Ryan starts, but he is interrupted by the TARDIS wheezing, as it begins to dematerialise. The Doctor smiles up at the TARDIS, her hand unconsciously drifting towards her side. “Doctor, what's wrong?” 

The Doctor gives her friends a wary look. It is almost like she feels guilty about something. “sorry,” she says gently. 

The trio frowns, concern rushing through them. What is she sorry for? 

But before they can voice the question, the Doctor's eyes roll back into her head. Her knees buckle, and she slumps forwards. 

Catching her before she hits the ground, Ryan rushes forwards. The Doctor is heavier than he’d imagined, but the thought barely passes through his mind. 

He is more focused on the blood stain spreading across her chest.

\---------------

“So, where are we doc?” 

The Doctor smiles as she looks around, hands on her hips. She looks out at the landscape, enjoying the view. And why not; it really is a beautiful view. In the distance, snow capped mountains stand tall. Yellow rolling hills wait in front of them, and about half a mile away stands a small, tribal looking village. Smoke rises from their reed huts, and tall, wheat like plants grow tall on the land. 

“Welcome to the planet Oreta. A small earth like planet still in the early phases of development. The people are still pretty primative, but nice and friendly. If I remember correctly.” the Doctor pauses for just a second, before bounding off towards the village. The trio looks around, shading their eyes from the bright sunlight coming from the two suns in the sky. 

“Is that the moon?” Ryan asks the Doctor, spotting a large rock in the sky. He trails some way behind her, but she still manages to hear him. 

“No, that's a nearby planetoid. Kinda like Pluto.” She tells them. “It can only be seen from Oreta during the three summer months. The remaining five months of the year they are too far apart.” 

Yaz smiles. She loves travelling with the Doctor and seeing all these new planets. Ryan joins her in that sentiment, shares her smile. He never really got the chance to travel growing up. He lived with just his mum after his parents split up and they didn't have a lot of money. And then when his mum got sick, and later died… living with his nan was great, he wouldn't have given it up for the world, but he never really got to travel. With the Doctor, he could travel anywhere, anywhen, and he was going to cherish every moment of it. 

“Have you been here before then?” Yaz asks as she catches up with the timelord. They are both the same height, but either the Doctor has longer legs, or legs that just work faster. 

The Doctor shrugs, her face scrunching up a bit. “dunno. Can't remember. But I've been meaning to visit - or is that revisit - for a while.” 

Yaz smiles and shakes her head. This woman is kinda insane, but that's what makes her so amazing and so great. 

It doesn't take them long before they finally reach the village. Almost all the people of the village seem to be gathered in a large open space around a fire pit. A woman, dressed in not very much at all, stands in front of the fire talking to her people. 

“And we will remember them always.” She finishes, just as the four friends stroll into the situation. 

“Doctor?” Graham asks cautiously. These people look very different to the kinds of people he usually deals with. The main woman wears a strip of cloth around her waist, which only just covers herself. Then wears what appears to be a leather band around the top half of her body, and a rope necklace around her neck. Everyone else in the village wears roughly the same thing, including anklets on their legs. Men have one in their left foot, women on their right. But the woman who seems I be the chief has a headdress on, filled with colourful feathers. Their dark skin reflects the sun, but their hair is bright white. 

As the woman finishes speaking, the villagers get up and begin to disperse. Only the children look over at the four newcomers. The adults don't seem to care. 

“Travellers?” The chief asks, approaching them. 

The Doctor nods, a kind and curious smile on her face. “Yes, that sums us up nicely.” She says, her grin widening. “I'm the Doctor, this is Ryan, Yaz and Graham.” 

Her companions each offer a small wave as the doctor says their names. 

“A doctor, you say?” The chief asks, her brow wrinkling in consideration. 

The Doctor frowns too, wondering why this woman is so desperate for a healer. “yes, I can be. Why? What do you need a doctor for?” 

The chief sighs, and begins walking towards another hut. She beckons at the four newcomers for them to follow. “come.” 

The hut is large. Inside lies about seven beds, all spread in a circle around the outside, leaving an empty space in the centre. Two men sit in the empty space, hands entwined, and muttering something. Their eyes are closed, heads tilted towards the sky, like they're praying. 

The Doctor takes in the scene with childlike enthusiasm. She need to beds, five of which are empty, two of which hold children. Sick children. “What's this then?” 

The children that lie on the bed are far too pale. Their muscles seem to have wasted away, leaving them with frail, skeletal figures. They look barely strong enough to open their eyes. Sweat slicks across their skin, despite the cool air provided by the shade of the hut. One look at these children says that they don't have long left for this world. 

Ryan feels like he would nudge the Doctor, tell her she should be more considerate, but thankfully the chief doesn't seem to mind. 

“A plague started up a few days ago.” She informed the four of them. “So far, it's only affected children.” 

The Doctor's face falls, all childishness disappearing in an instant. “That's who you were saying goodbye to outside?” 

The others frown. But it only takes a second to click into place. The villagers were honoring their dead outside when they arrived, promising to always remember them. It's the best they can do for the dead.

The chief nods, her head hanging. “yes. We cannot do anything. We have not found a cure yet, and I am scared we never will. If you are a healer, then please, please help us.” The chief takes the doctor by the hands, begging. She is desperate. The population of the village is small, the children are vital to the future of the village. If all the children were to die then her people would have no future and she cannot let that happen. 

The Doctor nods. “I will help you.” 

The chief smiles, and steps back, allowing the doctor to move towards the sick children and inspect them. But despite that big old brain of hers, she has limited knowledge of alien diseases. So she whips out her sonic screwdriver and scans the two children. Looking over the readings, her face falls. “There's nothing I can do for them. I'm sorry. The plague has progressed too far.” She says, getting to her feet and turning right chief. “I may be able to work out a cure, or a vaccine for you all though, so that no one has to get sick in the future.”

The chief, however, is staring at the sonic, her eyes wide and fearful. “what is that?” She demands. There's a slight accusatory tone in her voice, that immediately puts the four travellers in edge. 

The Doctor holds it up. She is here to help, and if she must show her sonic to the chief in order to calm her nerves, then so be it. “It's my sonic screwdriver. Except it does a little more than just screwdrive. It's also a medical scanner, and-”

“It's witchcraft, is what it is!” The chief yells, snatching it from the doctors hands and throwing it to the ground. She raises a foot and stamps on it, smashing the device into pieces.

“No!” The anguish in the Doctor's voice is almost painful. “I had the readings on that! I was going to use it to help you!”

“How do I know that you weren't sent by the devil to kill us all! Huh! You have all this machinery, you are dangerous! Get out of my village.” The chief backs away, wary of them now. She has nothing wrong with visitors to her village, but she does not understand their machinery and it scares her. 

The two healer men in the hut have disappeared, and Ryan can hear panicked shouting outside. He risks a look through the door and sees people arming up with bows and arrows, reading to storm the healers hut. “Doctor, I think we'd better be going.” 

Graham and Yaz join him, looking at the scene unfolding outside. The villagers are arming themselves, ready to dive out the potentially deadly invaders. “Yeah, doc. We need to leave now.” 

“But I'm trying to help you! Without me, your kids could die!” The Doctor protests to the chief. She doesn't want to leave these people, not when she can do so much for them. 

The chief shakes her head, backing away as far as possible. “My people will be arming themselves now. You leave! Or you die.” 

The Doctor looks like she wants to protest more, beg the chief to let them stay, but she knows when to give in. So instead she nods, and slowly backs away from the chief, and out the door. As soon as she gets outside, she raises her hands to the villagers. They are all surrounding the hut, with angry scowls on their faces. They look positively murderous, and it's frightening.

“We're going. Please, do not harm us. We are going in peace.” The Doctor announces.

Her friends all follow carefully, and slowly, eager not to make a move that will cause them to fire all their arrows. 

But then something In The Doctor's pocket begins to make a noise. She groans, momentarily forgetting about the armed villagers surrounding them. She pulls a strange, cobbled together device out her pocket. 

“Damnit, I forgot about that. I set a timer reminding me to do some repairs on the TARDIS console. My girls very good at fixing herself up, but there a few things here and there she needs my help with.” She explains to her friends, turning her back on the villagers so she can better explain. 

And by turning her back on the villagers, she completely misses the sight of the villagers all raising their bows and arrows, preparing to fire. Her companions, however, see it all too clearly. 

Seeing the absolute fear on her friends faces, the doctor turns back to look at the crowd. Her eyes go wide and her face goes pale. 

“Uh, guys. Run!” 

They immediately all burst into a run, heading back towards the TARDIS as quickly as they can. Arrows whizz past them all, but none seem to make their mark. The Doctor falls behind slightly, ducking and weaving, as most of the arrows are aimed at her. She's been designated most dangerous by the villagers. 

“Get inside the TARDIS! Now!”

When someone is usually pretty calm and chill about things yells at you with such a complete urgency and panic in their voice, than you listen to them. You do exactly as they say and you don't even question it. That's why Graham, yaz and Ryan sprint across the dry fields, towards the deep blue box the second the Doctor called out to them. Things are turning nasty, and the doctor knows that the safest place for all of them is inside her home. So that's where they run. 

Bursting into the control room, the adrenaline filling their systems begins to ease a little, as they hunch over, hands on knees and trying desperately to regain their breath. Graham, as the oldest, is last in. 

“I hate running. Have I ever mentioned that?” he moans, panting hard as he leans against the TARDIS console. 

Yaz rolls her eyes and looks to Ryan, who is shaking his head. “all the time.” Ryan complains

Yaz smiles, laughing gently. The seriousness of the situation wearing off slightly now that they are safe. But there is someone missing. “hang on, where's the Doctor?” 

The two men look up at that. In their frantic haste to get inside the TARDIS, they had forgotten about the one who had told them to get there. She isn't anywhere in the TARDIS, and the others don't like that. “Where is she?” 

The TARDIS makes a strange noise, almost that of startled panic, and everyone turns to look at the door as it bursts open, and a blonde woman bursts in. She slams the door shut behind her and rushes to the control panel, flicking levers and pulling switches, desperate to get away. She says nothing, barely even acknowledging her worried companions. 

“Doctor,” yaz starts. “are you okay?” 

Indeed, the time lord's face is pale, hair all disheveled, and her coat has a big rip in it, although it looks to yaz like the Doctor is trying to angle the tear away from her companions. The Doctor is also quiet. She is never quiet. She is the most hyperactive puppy like person the trio have ever met, and if she is quiet.. something had to have gone more wrong than they realised. 

The Doctor's breathing isn't slowing. “I need to get us away from here.” She mumbles 

Graham is frowning now. “Doc, you sure you're okay? You really don't look it, you know.”

The Doctor just shakes her head, hair getting in her eyes. “We need to get away from here.”

“Doctor,” Ryan starts, but he is interrupted by the TARDIS wheezing, as it begins to dematerialise. The Doctor smiles up at the TARDIS, her hand unconsciously drifting towards her side. “Doctor, what's wrong?” 

The Doctor gives her friends a wary look. It is almost like she feels guilty about something. “sorry,” she says gently. 

The trio frowns, concern rushing through them. What is she sorry for? 

But before they can voice the question, the Doctor's eyes roll back into her head. Her knees buckle, and she slumps forwards. 

Catching her before she hits the ground, Ryan rushes forwards. The Doctor is heavier than he’d imagined, but the thought barely passes through his mind. 

He is more focused on the blood stain spreading across her chest.


	2. Simple victories

“Oh my god! What do we do!” Graham is panicking. Looking down at the bleeding and unconscious time lord, he is freaking out. He doesn't know what to do. He watches on, as yaz bends down at the Doctor's side, pressing against the wound, trying to stem the bleeding. It isn't too deep, but it's a long gash that is oozing a lot of blood. It's a worrying sight to say the least. 

Ryan shakes his head, looking up at yaz who is crouched by his side. “she must have got hit by an arrow as we were running.” 

Yaz nods, but she is hit with a wave of sadness. The Doctor was hit by an arrow and they didn't even notice; they were too busy saving themselves to care about her. She stares at the timelord, at a loss for what to do. “so, what do we do now?” 

“Medbay!” Graham suddenly exclaims. “The Doctor said there was a medbay.”

Yaz frowns. The Doctor gave them a tour of the TARDIS when they originally started travelling with her, but she can't remember ever having seen a medbay. “I don't know where it is.”

But the TARDIS seems to know this. The machine let's out a high pitched hum, and the lights around the console flicker. It's trying to tell them something, but none of them understand that the TARDIS is a living machine. 

“Well, we can't stay here.” Graham tells them. He gestures towards the hallway. “It's somewhere out there, we need to try and find it.” 

Yaz and Ryan look at each other. The momentary look that passes between them says enough. They agree with Graham. “I'll carry her.” Ryan offers. He's the tallest and strongest of the three of them. 

As carefully as he can, Ryan lifts the timelord into his arms. A soft moan escapes her lips, and a slight frown creases her brow. She's clearly feeling the pain, even unconscious. Yaz watches on, heart breaking. 

Graham is first out of the control room. He leads the way despite not actually knowing where he's going. But the TARDIS lends a hand, illuminating the paths he needs to take to get to the medbay. The room is big, white, and looks too clinical. It's probably the least homelike room in the whole ship. Most likely because the Doctor hates coming in here. She only does when it's absolutely necessary. 

Ryan carefully lays the Doctor on one of the beds in there. There are only two, which baffles the others. The Doctor once mentioned that the TARDIS console has six sides because it's designed to be driven by six people, so why would the medbay only have two beds? Although, the TARDIS does like to redecorate herself, so maybe the machine has decided two beds is ample. 

The Doctor is too pale, and the team are at a loss for what to do. They look to yaz for clues, since she has the most first aid training, but she doesn't know. 

“Apply pressure,” Yaz mutters, going through her first aid training in her head. She looks around the room, and rummages through draws before coming across some gauze. She grabs it and presses it firmly to the wound. The Doctor let's out another soft moan. It breaks yaz’s heart to see her like this. The Doctor is normally so strong and bouncy, indestructible. Now she lies too still on a hospital bed. 

The Doctor's eyes begin to flicker, and the three of them watch, hopeful, as the Doctor slowly opens her eyes. Groggily, she looks around. But pain and bloodloss make her head spin, so she shifts her eyes again. Her hand meets yaz's as she pressed on the wound. “What happened?” 

“You tell us. One minute we're all running for our lives, the next you're lying unconscious on the floor.” Graham sounds really grumpy about the whole thing, but they all know it's just because he's concerned about her. He doesn't like it when people get hurt. Probably because it reminds him of Grace. She's always help out when someone got hurt. 

The Doctor lifts her head to look at him. But the movement takes a lot out of her. “An arrow hit me. I thought it wouldn't be too bad but… sorry.”

Yaz strokes her arm. “Don't be sorry. None of that was your fault. It was just a stupid misunderstanding.” 

The Doctor smiles up at yaz, grateful. 

“Tell us what to do. How do we help you?” Ryan demands, breaking the gentle moment between the two women. 

The Doctor shakes her head. “You don't need to do anything. Timelord biology means I'll heal fast. Faster than humans do at any rate. Within about an hour I should be fully healed.” 

Graham nods, letting out a relieved sigh. Ryan also nods, his shoulders slumping slightly as he relaxes. The Doctor isn't in any danger. She just needs rest. 

“Why don't you two go and make up a pot of tea. We'll join you later.” yaz suggests. 

The two men agree, grateful for an excuse to get out of there. They don't really know what they are meant to be helping with in the medbay, but at least in the kitchen they know what to do. 

About twenty minutes later, yaz and the Doctor walk in. Yaz has her hand on the Doctor's back, helping her to remain stable as she walks to a chair and immediately sits down. She's still frail. The wound is beginning to knit back together, but any sudden movements makes it burn, pain spiking through her body uncomfortably. She looks miserable. 

Ryan smiles, pushing a plate of custard creams and jammie Dodgers her way. Her face lights up as she reaches for the plates. 

“Why do you even have so many biscuits in your cupboards, doc?” Graham asks. The cupboard had two shelves stacked full of biscuits. 

The Doctor shrugs, relaxing back in her chin with a cheeky grin on her face. “You can never have too many biscuits, Graham.”

Yaz laughs, and a moment later all four of them are chuckling. The Doctor is wounded, frail and tender, but at least she's no longer unconscious. 

Not every victory is about saving the planet.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still working on the next chapters; I can't just leave you hanging here, but it may take some time. Please be patient.
> 
> Feel free to add comments and give tips


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